May 27, 2009 By Robert Amsterdam

Who is Facebook’s New Russian Partner?

vkontakte052609.pngTuesday’s big news was that the Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies purchased a 2% stake of preferred shares in the immensely popular social media platform Facebook.  But who is this group, and who’s behind it?  Other the company’s official website, you can expect the Financial Times to devote several pages to the story in tomorrow’s edition. 

According to the company site, DST was founded in 2005 by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, and was given a nice doorway into Goldman Sachs when they were joined by Alexander Tamas in 2008 (the FT piece acknowledges that GS helped provide the introduction between Milner and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman which eventually led to the deal).  DST’s most well known internet property is Mail.Ru (which is basically Russia’s version of Hotmail), as well as the employment portal Head Hunters.  They also run a site called Vkontakte.ru, which looks to many like an exact clone of Facebook.

Some brief digging around reveals interesting things about Russia’s hottest new internet entrepreneurs.